Michael Wilkins
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A black cormorant flies across a pure white sky, wings raised in a high vee, pale cheek and hooked bill visible.

Shag on White

January 2017

EOS 6D, 200 millimetres, f 3.2, 1/4000 of a second, ISO 500

One bird, one sky, nothing else.

A cormorant on an overcast day is a drawing waiting to happen. I pushed the exposure until the sky left entirely and kept the bird at the moment the wings reached their high vee — the whole animal reduced to a black glyph with one pale cheek. No horizon, no water, no context. Some subjects are strongest with everything taken away.